Last Friday, November 11, 2011, I passed on on this blog, at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/response-to-protector-of-environment.html, a letter I sent to the Cambridge Chronicle.
My submittal of this letter was highly unusual and the fact that almost all of it was printed is even more unusual because of very severe procedural oddities. Nevertheless this letter was one of the few which make sense being printed in spite of the oddities.
The biggest environmental problem in or near Cambridge, MA, is a bunch “protective” groups I consider fakes. The “protective” groups, once you scratch the highly polished surface have a very strong tendency to be highly influenced by the Cambridge City Manager / City Council. They commonly have the problem of achievements which are in conflict with their stated goals.
One of the worst of these groups has been running around for 15 years or so claiming to be defending the Alewife reservation but maneuvering people away from the winnable / savable part of the reservation, that owned and controlled by public agencies, with the City of Cambridge smack dab in the middle of the situation.
The Alewife reservation is / was a virgin forest only a few hundred feet west of Alewife Station, the northern terminus of the subway systems Red Line. The leader has been crying for 15 years her love for Alewife. A few weeks ago, in the Chronicle, she praised the destruction of the core Alewife reservation, controlled by Cambridge / the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation.
The destruction planned / accomplished involves clear cutting acres of massive, excellent trees with the associated killing of all animals who do not get out of their way and the gutting of massive numbers of nests.
Two weeks ago, the Chronicle published my letter building on a letter from a number of former members of Cambridge’s Human Rights Commission. They had had the nerve to ask about the Monteiro case to the Cambridge City Manager. This case has resulted in the City of Cambridge paying Ms. Monteiro $8.3 million after orders of the appeals court and superior court. That number includes $1.1 million actual damages and $3.5 million penal damages.
The city solicitor apparently treated the request as a violation of the expectation that all people associated with the City of Cambridge pay obeisance to Team Healy [Cambridge City Manager].
My letter two weeks ago applied the principal expressed by the city solicitor and said that his apparent position goes a long way to explain the very commonly irresponsible behavior of these supposed “protective” groups. Three of the points directly hit the Alewife issue.
Last week, after her earlier letter was printed supporting destruction of the core Alewife reservation, the key woman had an other letter bemoaning lack of interest in protecting that part of the reservation she is not trying to destroy. Her letter followed mine by a week and totally ignored my letter and the points which destroy her argument for destroying the core Alewife reservation.
So I sent a letter, printed at the link, asking why she had not responding to the three points in my letter which destroy her position supporting destruction of the core Alewife reservation. My letter was printed at page 17 of the November 17, 2011 Chronicle. Interestingly, my last sentence did not make it into the Chronicle. That was the sentence quoting her prior letter statement of her support for the destruction, without mentioning yet another letter, for obvious reasons.
The letter and its printing was unusual because it constitutes a direct attack by name on the supposed protector of the Alewife reservation. Perhaps the last sentence was omitted to bring the letter closer to what really is normal procedure. The situation, however, called for my letter to be printed, and, once again, the Cambridge Chronicle printed it.
Thank you to the Cambridge Chronicle.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Cambridge City Council compared to Vick, Paterno
1. General.
2. Michael Vick.
3. Joe Paterno.
4. Summary.
1. General.
The Cambridge pols live in their own world. It is a world strikingly different from the world that their massive organization brags about.
This fake world is achieved by a whole bunch of lovely words on matters which generally are not within their powers or barely within their powers, combined with taking really bad actions as secretly as possible.
The voters got rid of a very bad City Councilor from an environmental point of view. He was quoted as saying in public words very similar to the words the Cambridge pols have quite constantly used about their animal victims. This time, he said those words with regard to the woman whose life the Cambridge City Manager destroyed because she had the nerve to file a civil rights complaint.
To me, it is all one mentality, and to a lot of people it is all one mentality.
People who are heartless animal abusers have a distressing tendency to graduate to human beings and, really, listening to a whole bunch of different types of abusers sounds very much alike.
One thing in common is the demeaning of the victim.
And that was exactly what the soon to be former city councilor did with regard to Malvina Monteiro. He and other members of the city council were questioned on the case and they reportedly responded that [destroying her life] was no big thing.
Responsible outsiders have emphatically shown disgust and contempt for the destruction of Malvina Monteiro’s life, and responsible outsiders are routinely shocked by Cambridge and the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s heartless abuse of animals.
The one thing the Cambridge pols have most going for them is their own non stop self lauding based on matters which are at most peripheral to their real responsibilities.
2. Michael Vick.
Vick certainly did some terrible things in his dog fighting outrages. He has gone to jail and he has reformed.
The outrages on the Charles River continue unabated as part of truly bizarre proposals.
The plans to make things worse continue unabated.
The contempt for living beings is being reenforced as part of the animal pogrom going on at Alewife, again as part of a truly bizarre package.
Vick is repentant and smaller scale.
Cambridge and the DCR are making things much, much worse.
It is an insult to Vick to compare him to these people.
3. Joe Paterno.
Joe Paterno is a saint at Penn State because of his very long football success combined with his demands of quality scholarship from his players.
He has been fired because of a continuing series of allegations about sexual abuse of children by an assistant with failure to act by Paterno.
The first and most important thing to say about Paterno is that the alleged culprit is exactly that, alleged, and he denies the behavior.
The Cambridge City Manager continues to say he did nothing wrong with regard to Malvina Monteiro.
The jury, the trial judge and the appeals court very strongly disagree.
The jury calculated $1.1 million actual damages. They awarded an essentially unprecedented $3.5 million in penal damages to communicate their feelings.
The judge agreed with the jury and used the word “reprehensible.”
The appeals court would not dignify the appeal with a formal opinion.
The appeals court, in their informal comments, spoke of “ample evidence [of] outrageous actions.”
The response of the Cambridge pols:
Exactly zero Cambridge City Councilors want to fire the Cambridge City Manager for his proven and adjudged destruction of the life of Malvina Montero in retaliation for her filing a civil rights complaint.
Five Cambridge City Council incumbents, reduced to four with the unelection of one, are committed IN ADVANCE to rehiring the City Manager in the coming contract discussions. Three other incumbents and the newly elected councilor are noncommittal.
Paterno has well earned his very great lauding as part of his football legacy.
Paterno was summarily thrown out of his job for failure to supervise.
4. Summary.
Cambridge, MA, USA, has a really rotten city government.
2. Michael Vick.
3. Joe Paterno.
4. Summary.
1. General.
The Cambridge pols live in their own world. It is a world strikingly different from the world that their massive organization brags about.
This fake world is achieved by a whole bunch of lovely words on matters which generally are not within their powers or barely within their powers, combined with taking really bad actions as secretly as possible.
The voters got rid of a very bad City Councilor from an environmental point of view. He was quoted as saying in public words very similar to the words the Cambridge pols have quite constantly used about their animal victims. This time, he said those words with regard to the woman whose life the Cambridge City Manager destroyed because she had the nerve to file a civil rights complaint.
To me, it is all one mentality, and to a lot of people it is all one mentality.
People who are heartless animal abusers have a distressing tendency to graduate to human beings and, really, listening to a whole bunch of different types of abusers sounds very much alike.
One thing in common is the demeaning of the victim.
And that was exactly what the soon to be former city councilor did with regard to Malvina Monteiro. He and other members of the city council were questioned on the case and they reportedly responded that [destroying her life] was no big thing.
Responsible outsiders have emphatically shown disgust and contempt for the destruction of Malvina Monteiro’s life, and responsible outsiders are routinely shocked by Cambridge and the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s heartless abuse of animals.
The one thing the Cambridge pols have most going for them is their own non stop self lauding based on matters which are at most peripheral to their real responsibilities.
2. Michael Vick.
Vick certainly did some terrible things in his dog fighting outrages. He has gone to jail and he has reformed.
The outrages on the Charles River continue unabated as part of truly bizarre proposals.
The plans to make things worse continue unabated.
The contempt for living beings is being reenforced as part of the animal pogrom going on at Alewife, again as part of a truly bizarre package.
Vick is repentant and smaller scale.
Cambridge and the DCR are making things much, much worse.
It is an insult to Vick to compare him to these people.
3. Joe Paterno.
Joe Paterno is a saint at Penn State because of his very long football success combined with his demands of quality scholarship from his players.
He has been fired because of a continuing series of allegations about sexual abuse of children by an assistant with failure to act by Paterno.
The first and most important thing to say about Paterno is that the alleged culprit is exactly that, alleged, and he denies the behavior.
The Cambridge City Manager continues to say he did nothing wrong with regard to Malvina Monteiro.
The jury, the trial judge and the appeals court very strongly disagree.
The jury calculated $1.1 million actual damages. They awarded an essentially unprecedented $3.5 million in penal damages to communicate their feelings.
The judge agreed with the jury and used the word “reprehensible.”
The appeals court would not dignify the appeal with a formal opinion.
The appeals court, in their informal comments, spoke of “ample evidence [of] outrageous actions.”
The response of the Cambridge pols:
Exactly zero Cambridge City Councilors want to fire the Cambridge City Manager for his proven and adjudged destruction of the life of Malvina Montero in retaliation for her filing a civil rights complaint.
Five Cambridge City Council incumbents, reduced to four with the unelection of one, are committed IN ADVANCE to rehiring the City Manager in the coming contract discussions. Three other incumbents and the newly elected councilor are noncommittal.
Paterno has well earned his very great lauding as part of his football legacy.
Paterno was summarily thrown out of his job for failure to supervise.
4. Summary.
Cambridge, MA, USA, has a really rotten city government.
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